LoZ: Link's Awakening DX (Part 8)

As usual, the item we got in the last dungeon gives us access to a couple new items. For starters, head in the direction of the Animal Village. Head south three screens from the entrance, then left and hook shot across some low cliffs. Head up and west and inspect the statue to gain access to a small cavern. There are invisible enemies in here so make your way north as quick as possible and pick up the Magnifying Glass. Head down and kill the enemies and make your way out and back to the village. If you want you can stop by the spot under the bridge where we got the necklace and talk to the fisherman again for a photo.

Go inside this time and take the same path you used to get to the Yarna Desert, but instead of entering this place go north. You will come to a caved-in wall, so place a bomb and open up a small cavern. In the first room toss a bomb to the north side to blow open a hidden passage. Go through here, killing the keese, and you'll come to a low barrier that you can throw bombs over. Toss one over to the cracked stone disc and get it out of the way. Then equip your feather and head back to the first room, going left and up across the pits and then use your hook shot to get to the other side. Pick up a Piece of Heart (2/4).

From here you can hop down the ledge for a shortcut back to the first room. Head back to the village once again and walk into the shallow pond in the northeastern house for a picture if you care for it. When you're done take the warp over to Mabe.

Go one screen left and two down, jumping over the three pits with the boots and feather, then south another screen. Wander around the four screens here taking our all the enemies, then return to the northwest screen. We have to read the signs in a specific order here. Start with the southernmost sign in this screen. then walk in a straight horizontal line right and check the sign right in your path on the next screen.

Keep following the directions on the sign, making sure to always walk in a straight line. The next in the sequence will always be directly above/below/left/right of the last one you read. If you get it wrong you will have to start over. The fourth sign in the sequence can't be reached unless you use the hookshot to grab a boulder and get over to it, which is why we didn't come here earlier. When you're done you will be on the southwest screen and you will see a staircase appear in the shallow pond.

Pay 300 Rupees to the giant frog and to listen to his song, and you will learn the Frog's Song Of Soul. (A couple more optional things here, skip to the line of dashes again).

From here head over to Mabe village and go down to the beach. Stop at the library on the way and check the book in the southeastern corner. Write down the directions it gives you, we will need this in a future chapter. To the screen south of where the monkey sits throwing coconuts at you there is a caved-in wall, so open it and go inside.

Equip the shovel to your B button and talk to the dog-man in here. He'll offer to give you an item, but we have to give him something in return (since we don't have enough inventory space to carry that plus the other item we'll be getting later). After you've traded for the Boomerang, you can go up to the Mysterious Forest for 50 Rupees in the cave east of where we got the Tail Key if you want. If you've got the shovel, bow and Frog's song there's really nothing left to buy. We get one secret medicine from each of the next three dungeons, so you don't even need to buy those. I didn't bother with it myself.

Warp back to the animal village, then exit and go north past the steps leading over to the stone maze/seashell mansion area. On the next screen keep going east and Cahoot will come to blab at you for a bit, then when he's gone you're free to carry on.  Head east along the southern edge, picking up the boulders and tossing them aside. Continue right to the next screen, then go down here.

Get your bow out then go south again. If you touch any of the armos status by accident and they come alive, a single arrow will take care of them and they will always drop one to replenish your supplies. On the next screen stick to the south and head west. Touch the westernmost statue to wake it up and get it out of your way and continue to the left, this time sticking to the upper portion of the screen. Go up here and if you head to the right you'll find four armos statues grouped together. Underneath the bottom-left one is a staircase that will lead to a Secret Seashell if you happened to have missed one before, or 20 Rupees if you've already gotten 20 of them. Go back to the previous screen.

Head left here and follow the now-linear route to the shrine. Lift up the pots to find an arrow under each, which seems a bit foreboding, so equip the bow if you haven't got it out already and head forward.

I found this guy incredibly easy. Just keep firing your bow at him to knock him back and even when he jumps and stuns you, if you fire at the right moment you'll hit him as he comes down. When he's defeated he'll drop the Face Key so take it and go north. Light the two torches with some magic powder and inspect the carving at the top of the room for a stunning plot twist (maybe?). Exit and go all the way back to the spot just before we entered the maze of armos statues that had a bunch of boulders for us to lift up.

Go up the middle (or as close to the middle as you can get) for two screens and then go left. The collapsed cave here is a fairy fountain. Take the steps down into the water and swim to a small island to the south that has two armos statues on it. Touch the one on the left to wake it up and destroy it, then go down the steps. Go left past the two fish and use the hookshot to pull over a large pit.

When you exit, take the eastern path leading north to insert the key into the hole and raise up the second part of the shrine. Go back and head over left into the actual dungeon.

Level Six: Face Shrine

Dungeon Map

I hope you received the upgrade from the Mad Batter that allows you to carry 60 bombs, because we are going to be tossing explosives at everything in this dungeon.

From the entrance head left to encounter a new type of enemy - wizrobes. Your sword and boomerang won' do anything against these except stun them for a couple seconds and push them around. Four arrows will take them out, but your best bet by far is bombs. They will disappear and reappear at set intervals, and they'll never move unless you push them (except to face a different direction). In this first room you can take all three out by placing a bomb in the middle of them, opening the northeast door to a chest with 50 Rupees. Of course, we have little use for the money at this point in the game, so you're best off ignoring the wizrobes altogether and continuing through the northwest door.

Head north two rooms (note you can now kill sparks with the boomerang and they will always give you a fairy) and west to find a mask mimic and a switch. Kill the mimic and then move to the right side of the room. Place a bomb on the switch and move up so you are standing behind the block. You must let the bomb go off and see the block come up before you go to the next room. Never leave this room without first lifting the blocks up, just as a general rule. In the next room place a bomb between the two torches on the wall and head into the darkened room.

Wander around killing all the zol here for a staircase to appear, so take it downward. You don't need to light the torches. You will find two giant sparks bouncing around in here, you can't kill these. Ignore them as you head left and up another ladder. Kill the moldorm and two wizrobes here, then go up and find a chest with the Lv.2 Power Bracelet. Use this to lift one of the elephant statues and go north. You'll be back in the room with the mask mimic.

You can pick up the elephant statue here and throw it against the door on the right to gain access to a room with a 100 Rupees chest. Hit the switch to lower the blocks and then place a bomb and stand between the lowered block and the northwest exit until it explodes.Take the exit, then lift up the pot in the northwest corner of the next room and step on the switch. Go left once again. Kill the wizrobes to reveal a chest with the Dungeon Map and collect the floating 10 Arrows if you want them, bot don't touch the switch. Go north.Kill another zol here then grab a pot and toss it against the door to force it open. There's a Stone Beak to the east as well, but it's fairly useless as always.

In the next room head east and you will find a chest which contains the Compass, and a star enemy twirling about. Climb up the steps and hit the switch in the corner, following the upper ledges all the way around to a room with an anti-fairy bouncing around. There are also two more wizrobes in this room, kill them both for a Key (1). Backtrack now to the room before the compass, with two sparks and elephant statues. Use one of the latter to smash open the door.There's a chest with another 100 Rupees and stairs leading up to yet another 20 Rupees (this would have been another secret seashell).

Pick up the two horse heads (???) and toss them around until they both land standing up to open the door and get out of the room. If you toss one and it lands standing up but the other doesn't, you'll have to throw both of them again. Yeah. That's fun.

Head back to the entrance, hitting the switch in the room with the map to get back to the first switch. Make sure the blocks are up here before continuing on. Back at the entrance head right for a room with some conveyors and blade traps. The blades only go about half way down, so just stick to the south as you remove the statues from your path and make your way across the conveyors.

In the next room a bunch of the floor tiles will float up and fly at you. Simply make your way to a corner and hold your shield out in front of you until they've all destroyed themselves and continue north. Lift up a statue here and use it to bust open the door on the left. In the next room you'll have four more wizrobes to kill.

To the south you'll find a bit of a curious setup, though you can skip this room if you already have a Secret Medicine as you are only allowed to carry one. If you want it, take out the two stars then climb up the steps in the bottom left corner, then jump off the ledge onto the raise blocks. Jump right onto another raised block and go up the steps. Trick the blade trap out toward you then jump behind it and go up. Open the chest and then leap down off the ledge and continue north.

Smack everything out of your way here and continue north a couple screens for a chest out in the open containing a Key (2). Head back to the room that had four wizrobes and head back left. Open up the door to the north (-1 key) and take out the two red zols here. Bomb the middle of the northern wall and save your game if you wish, then proceed into the miniboss' chamber.

Smasher is awfully cute, but awfully pesky. The only way to hurt it is by picking up its ball after it throws it at you and throwing it back at him. The feather might help you dodge here, since you won't be needing anything besides your power bracelet for offense, or the Pegasus Boots. He can kind of hurt, but he shouldn't be too much of a chore to handle.

Head up and ignore the doorway to the north - it will just loop you back around to the room before the miniboss. Instead, lift up the left elephant statue here and continue down through another tunnel. When you emerge here, immediately run to the southwest corner and get your shield out again because more flying tiles will come at you. When they've all been destroyed you will get another Key which we will use right away on the block to the northeast (-1 key).

In the next hallway smash open another door and continue left for a small room with an annoying method for opening the next door. You have to take the two more horse heads in the middle of the floor and take out your aggression on them.  When you're done with this tomfoolery head west to another staircase. In the next tunnel simply use your Pegasus Boots to charge past all the thwimps.

In the next room you will find some pols voice, just get out your ocarina and play the Ballad of the Wind Fish to kill all three in one go. Two screens to the north there is a chest with 200 Rupees as well as more fooling around with a pair of horse heads, so go fetch that if you wish. Again I didn't bother. Our real destination however is the room to the south of here. You will find two Dodongo Snakes, so force-feed them three bombs like you did back in the Key Cavern and then exit west.

Use your hookshot to pull yoruself to the right and open up the lock block (-1 key) before continuing north. Hit this chest with a pot to open it and get the Nightmare's Key. Play Manbo's Mambo on your Ocarina and then take the red warp back to the miniboss room. Head north and take the stairs under the mammoth statue once again to get to the room with the tiles that chuck themselves at you. Ignore them and head south for a vacuum - you can knock this into the pit if you want to risk getting close enough to the edge once it stops. There are four zols in this room hidden in the floor, and you must get them to either be sucked into the pit or actually destroy them for the door on the right to open.

Here you have to jump across a pit and place a bomb to take out a wizrobe while avoiding a beamo that will shoot lasers at you. There's also a low barrier and you will have to push a stone block aside to get around it once the wizrobe is dead. Once you've done all that head north, and light the two torches to instantly turn the sparks into fairies. Go north again into the boss room.

Facade is a pretty simple boss. Just try to get a feel for the timing of its disappearances and reappearances and place your bombs accordingly. You'll have to dodge pits and flying tiles and jars, but overall it's a very easy fight. Once you're done, head north and pick up our sixth Instrument of the Sirens - the Coral Triangle!

We're almost there now, so let's proceed to the seventh dungeon.

Go to part 9 --->